FirstGroup shares rise after UK rail service extensions approved

Shares of FirstGroup PLC (LSE:FGP) climbed 1% following the UK’s Office of Road and Rail (ORR) granting approval for extensions to its Hull Trains and Lumo open access rail services, effective from December 2025.

The green light from regulators allows Lumo to extend certain daily routes to Glasgow Queen Street, boosting capacity by roughly 19 million seat miles and including stops at Falkirk High and Edinburgh Haymarket. Additionally, FirstGroup plans to introduce an extra daily Lumo service running between Newcastle and London, adding 76 million seat miles, alongside an increased Hull Trains service on weekdays and Saturdays between London and Hull, contributing an extra 23 million seat miles.

Altogether, these expansions will increase FirstGroup’s open access capacity by about 118 million seat miles, on top of its current 967 million seat miles. When combined with previously approved new routes to Stirling and Carmarthen, this will more than double the company’s existing open access network.

On the other hand, the ORR declined FirstGroup’s request to launch a new Hull Trains service between London and Sheffield, which would have added an estimated 92 million seat miles. FirstGroup confirmed it remains open to exploring future possibilities for this route.

“Although the rejection of the service of the new route between London and Sheffield is disappointing, we did not expect all applications to increase capacity to be approved, particularly following the WCML rejections. There are further open access applications to play for,” noted RBC analysts in response to the decision.

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